Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Music lovers often compare hearing artists perform live to something like a religious experience. That’s perhaps especially true at 20 Front Street, where singers and their songs are exalted in a way that isn't typical of music venues, bars and clubs.

Cofounder and co-owner Allan Goetz was away at a church retreat in the autumn of 2015 when he felt a profound calling to pursue the opening of a new music venue for his community of Lake Orion. “I really didn’t have ‘build a venue’ on my radar,” Goetz recalls, “but the actual building at 20 Front Street came into my head while I was praying.”

That building, constructed about 80 years ago as a creamery, would eventually be used as an auto shop and an antiques store before falling into disrepair. With encouragement from his wife, Angela, Goetz rented the location, and the couple got down to work.

They weren’t involved in the venture by themselves. 20 Front Street is owned by a collective of community members who are close friends of the Goetzes. There’s Tim Williams, who assists co-owner Kevin Bessert with bookings and offers visiting artists top-shelf treatment. Others involved are Scott Loudon (the audio engineer), Bryan Lowe (designer of the venue’s café and website), Jay Richardson (who runs the downstairs creamery) and co-owner Mike Linc.

Also fueling the late-2016 birth of the venue was the enthusiasm of musicians from Michigan and across the country. All were eager for a change of pace from the bar scene, where bands aren't always guaranteed the most attentive of audiences.

Over its first 15 months, 20 Front Street has become one of the most reliable places to encounter the best of southeast Michigan's folk and Americana singer-songwriters. The most consistently featured guests have been in genres that benefit most from optimal acoustical treatments, resonant rooms and appreciative listeners.

Intimate experience

“(20 Front Street) creates such an intimate atmosphere,” says singer-guitarist Emily Burns of Ferndale folk duo Escaping Pavement. “And it allows for so much connection between the audience and performer. It’s now, hands down, our favorite type of performance environment and our favorite way to see a show as well.”

Similar to the Ark in Ann Arbor, 20 Front Street is designed to make sure that music and musicians are its focus. It doesn't have a bar that serves alcohol, but offers refreshments, including ice cream, at the Social Cafe and creamery downstairs.

“Because it’s a smaller listening room, it’s more intimate with a more attentive audience,” says music fan Jean Mason, who makes regular drives to Lake Orion for 20 Front Street concerts. “And you can meet and mingle with the performers before and after the sets (in the Social Café). Plus the folks who work there are very pleasant, very friendly.”

20 Front Street seats 90 people and was acoustically designed by Loudon to accentuate live musical performances. “We wanted to go back 100 years to where you experienced music in the most honest and pure place,” says the sound engineer, who is the owner and designer of Ashram Recording Studio in Ortonville. “(With 20 Front Street) we were essentially building a control room similar to a recording studio. The sound is meant to flow toward the center of the room.”

Loudon’s design left no parallel surfaces and features a stage similar to that of an amphitheater. “It has a slight radius, helping the sound to go towards the audience,” says Loudon. “We wanted the space to feel ancient, in a way, so the centerpiece of the stage is a door frame from India and the bricks in the side and back walls are angled, staggered bricks.”

The building at 20 Front St. in Lake Orion was originally a creamery and was also the site of an auto shop and antiques store before it fell into disrepair. It was built about 80 years ago.(Photo: 20 Front Street)

The money pit

“While building all this out,” Loudon says, “the team and I, and Allan, had to scratch our heads and ask if we were crazy!”

Goetz, who had never owned a brick-and-mortar business previously (he spent nearly 30 years running Tour Connection, a travel resource service for entertainers and artists), acknowledges that he and his partners discovered that the building at 20 Front St. was in rougher shape than they expected.

“There were a lot of obstacles to overcome," says Goetz. “It needed new water service; a sewer pipe beneath it was crushed. The roof leaked; the electricity was inadequate. I felt like that scene in 'The Money Pit' where Tom Hanks has his bathtub fall through the floor and he starts laughing but also kind of crying.”

But there were always helpers to provide assistance and visitors to the site to provide encouragement. During construction, musicians and music fans visited the site to write poems, favorite quotations, well-wishes and Scripture verses on the exposed wall.

Feels like home

The listening room feels like a music oasis. With staggered bricked walls, soft purple and rose lighting and the glimmer of an ornate chandelier over the stage, it has a cozy, Old World ambience.

“The attention to detail in that space made it feel so warm and welcoming,” says Burns, who performed at the grand opening in late 2016. “It has a way of feeling like home from the moment you walk in the door.” The staff, she notes, contribute mightily to that feeling. “(It’s) wonderful folks that are true music lovers, presenting music the way it should be presented and enjoyed!”

Once the venue opened, a quotation from Martin Luther was painted on an exterior wall: “Next to the word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.”

Williams and Bessert are keen on balancing beloved local acts like Escaping Pavement, Katelynn Corll and Zander Michigan with out-of-state songwriters who have a nationwide or even worldwide following. Singer Jason Hawk Harris tours in from California to perform with Grand Rapids based songwriter Mark Lavengood next week.

Sleepy no more

The 20 Front Street team seems to have put Lake Orion on the map of Michigan’s greater music scene.

“It was a bit of a sleepy town up until about three years ago,” Goetz says. “But there are a lot of other great things happening. New restaurants are opening up in downtown Lake Orion. One really cool thing is that the Paint Creek Trail entrance was recently moved right into (20 Front Street)’s backyard, so now (we’re) also a trailhead.”

Once the snow melts, the venue’s outdoor patio will reopen, and the Lowe-designed Social Cafe, which offers loose-leaf tea and Kombucha, will again become a warm-weather hangout spot. Goetz acknowledges that he has considered serving alcohol, but says it's not a priority at present. The 20 Creamery is another warm-weather facet of the venue. It has a walk-up service window where visitors can get cups or cones of ice cream Ray's Ice Cream of Royal Oak.

As the 20 Front team continues to look for ways to expand and improve., it is considering using cameras in the listening room to stream musical performances online. “We hope to really help artists with their sense of value and expand their possibilities through the online concert series,” Loudon says.

His sentiments are echoed by Goetz: “Music is incredibly powerful, but it can sometimes be unfortunately undervalued. We’re on a mission to change that.”